Golden Age of Athens

The Golden Age of Athens was a period in Greek history which lasted from 478 to 404 BC, during which time Athens enjoyed political hegemony, economic growth, and cultural flourishing. Following the victory over Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars, Athens became the leader of the Delian League, a coalition of city-states which was formed to prevent Persia from invading again. As the Persian threat was now more distant, the Delian League also functioned as a major power-broker within the Greek world itself, and Athens collected tribute and soldiers from its League members. The Athenian statesman Pericles used Athens' prosperity to initiate massive and ambitious building projects such as the rejuvenation of the Acropolis Sanctuary, the construction of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis, the commissioning of the Statue of Athena, the building of the Temple of Zeus at Athens, and many other new buildings. In addition, the playwrights Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles began to publish their works, as did the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, the physician Hippocrates, andt the philosophers Socrates and Plato.

The Golden Age began to end in 432 BC, when the Peloponnesian War broke out between the Athenian-led Delian League and the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League. A plague struck Athens in 429 BC, leading to the deaths of Pericles and at least quarter of the city's population, and, in 404 BC, Athens was forced to surrender to Sparta after being cut off from its food supplies. Spartan troops then occupied Athens, ending its hegemony and ushering in a brief period of Spartan hegemony which lasted until the Corinthiann War of the 390s BC.